DIY Life

Sleep. We all need it, many of us get far to little of it and all of us are always in pursuit of the perfect night's sleep. How many times have you laid down at night feeling like you would fall asleep as soon as your head hit your pillow only to have your eyes pop open and stay that way? When this happens to me I usually end up reading for hours until I can no longer see well enough to keep reading. Sadly this doesn't always help. Then there is warm milk...... ok ,I have never been able to get myself to try this one, its just doesn't appeal to me. If reading doesn't help and warm milk is out what else is there?

Your wedding ring is probably something you wear all the time. Many people never take off their wedding ring until they find a real need to and then find they CAN'T get it off! Weight gain, pregnancy, altitude changes and many other causes can make getting that ring off seemingly impossible. What can you do to remove that ring without hurting your finger too much?

Tipnut.com has a very cool list of ideas that should work. Most of the suggestions have something to do with getting your finger slippery or trying to reduce the size of your finger. While I haven't don't it I know people who have used the dental floss method and I have been known to pull out the lotion when my ring is being difficult. Do you, our wonderful readers, have any ideas not mentioned in the article? If so please share them with us.

I'm sure you have seen candles decorated with everything from cinnamon sticks to rose petals. Have you ever wished you could have one that was a little more personal or ever quirky?

With DIY Alert's celebration candle project you can make a candle that says who you are. Cover it with pictures you got from a magazine as the article suggests or make up your own photo collage to showcase family and friends.

This craft seems to be a fairly easy decoupage undertaking. All you need is a basic pillar candle, Mod Podge and your magazine cut outs or photos printed on regular paper. I also think that this could be easily done with children or even on their own for slightly older kids.

Just be careful when you burn your creation. You did just add paper to a flammable object. I really like the suggestion of burning it carefully until you have a deep enough hole to place a battery operated tealight inside to keep your candle forever.

[via: CraftyPod] Photo by Liel Bomberg

Here at DIY Life we love our "many uses for" lists. We have showed you that lemon juice can be used for clean, vinegar can remove pet smells, WD-40 can do everything, and Cheerios are for so much more than eating. But what about the lowly pillow case? Your sheets have worn out, been ripped or used to tie your canoe to the car but you pillow cases are still in fine shape with no purpose. Not anymore! Here is a "many uses" list for your pillow cases so they can once again be given a purpose and a new lease on life.

Let's begin with number one on the list "Pack camping gear, hiking boots and supplies, make them into placemats for camping trips, trunk storage bags." Not your most glamorous of uses but maybe they will get to take the canoe trip with the sheets.

You can also make them into pet beds or doggy bandannas. Just be sure to have that vinegar handy to get rid of the smell later. How about laundry bags to wash your delicates? Cut them up for rag rugs or open the up and give them to your kids for super hero capes. Let us not forget the lovely skirt our own Jessi Chartier showed us how to make. You could even let your cat hide in them, if you have a cat that is.

Check out the article for the full list and find many more ways to make your pillow cases happy again.

To me candles are simply a part of what I have come to expect to have around during the holidays. I love the scent, the lighting and the simple but lovely ambiance they provide. Candles can be a bit pricey sometimes, especially when they aren't the color or scent you want. There have been many times when I have wanted a color to match a room and the smell was...... not so nice.

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone the time to think about Christmas is fully upon us. The gift shopping season is in full force and closets are beginning to fill up with wonderful secret things. While I know you have gifts on the brain, have you given any thought to what you will put those gifts in?

If you have any little gifts to give why not try making your own boxes for them? Sister Dianne from CraftyPod has created a wonderful tutorial for making these fun little boxes. There are also several pictures to help you figure out exactly what she is telling you to do.

I have made the basic box before but never could figure out how to make one to fit in the other. Thanks to the CraftPod tutorial I know what I was doing wrong. Also, this can be done with any card stock. While the cards are a very cool idea, there are many interesting kinds of card stock in many patterns at your local craft store. You could make many more sizes of boxes that way.

I'm sure you have had it happen to you. You buy a new baking pan, mug, vase or some other item that doesn't come in a package and had that darn price tag refuse to let go.

You can try many things to get it off but sometimes, even once the paper part of the tag comes off, you are left with a sticky spot where the tag was. What can you do? You may think that there isn't much you can do but tipnut has changed that for us.

Silver. Beautiful, classic and so easily tarnished. How do you clean it quickly and easily? You can buy liquid cleaner, but that's messy and not all that fast. Creamy polish is also messy and a bit time consuming.

I found this recipe to make your own polishing cloths over at Tipnut. You need to gather a few things for this concoction but it seems fairly easy to me.

Christmas is a mere eight weeks away (I know, GASP!) so that means now is the time to start your Christmas crafts. Somehow, nothing says Christmas like pine cones. Buying them, however, costs an ungodly amount for such simple and plentiful objects. What is the thrifty and crafty DIY'er to do? Use that collection of pine cones that you have hidden in the basket in your basement, of course. Or you could always go find a forest and do your collecting now.

Once you've hunted down your cones, either out of storage or from your brave venture into the wild, what should you do with them? The lovely and talented folks at Tipnut have your answer. Before you tie your cones into a wreath, or use them in any other craft, you must first prepare them. Tipnut has detailed instructions on how to prepare and preserve them so they are ready to make your Holiday centerpiece the work of art you are envisioning.

There are a few methods of making sure your pine cones are clean and bug free, but the second one sounds much safer to me. There are also instructions for bleaching them white. If you do choose to use the oven method, remember the very important step of watching for fire and smoke. (Like I said, the water method sounds safer)

Ivillage has a cool collection of Halloween craft ideas that are quick and easy to make, as well as super cool and cute. In this photo gallery you will find easy to make Halloween crafts with easy as pie instructions that any DIY'er can follow.

With a super cute button pumpkin (I named it the bumpkin) and scary soda pop you can find ideas to fit any type of Halloween party. So, haunt your way over to the Ivillage crafts page and start filling up your house with these cute projects. Can't wait for Halloween to use them? Make these countdown bags to fill up your time.

Like many of you I have some old China dishes that were my grandmother's. I want to take care of them but am not always sure how. How do I wash them? How often do I wash them? How do I get those ugly stains out, and how should I store them?

Tipnut.com has compiled a list that answers those questions as well as others. There are answers to all your burning question as well as suggestions on what soap to use to wash them. Thanks to tipnut we can now do our best to take care of those precious heirlooms.

Halloween is just around the corner and with it comes the absolute need for a really cool costume. Often times your kids want a super trendy costume along the lines of Master Chief, Star Wars, or Spiderman but sometimes they throw you a curve ball and ask to be a carrot or a scuba diver. Spiderman you can easily find at your local Giganto-Mart but a carrot? Not so much.

Thanks to Parenting Magazine's Halloween Central you can easily make your little one into that carrot and oh so much more the DIY way. There are several off beat costumes for both babies and older kids that you can make yourself fairly inexpensively.

We all have had to do it and we all hate to have to. Yet when there is a fight all we want is for the other person to apologize. How can something so commonplace and so appreciated be so hard to do?

Because it means admitting you are wrong and no one wants to have to do that. The time will come that you need to make a real and sincere apology so why not bush up on how?

You can find a really good step by step for doing so at wikiHow. There are many ideas that I think have been lost on many people and I think that this is a good reminder. For example, how can it be wrong to admit that what you did was wrong, stick to your word and only apologize if you actually mean it?

In a world where being right is often more important than saving a relationship I think this article is a good and important reminder of what really matters.

Everyone loves stained glass but not everyone knows how to do it. With this glass glob stained glass tutorial from knick knacks & ric rac you can easily achieve the look of of stained glass with glue, glass marbles and grout. While this is not your traditional stained glass it still gives a lovely effect that I personally love.

If you don't want to permanently stick these marbles to your door or window you could do the same thing to framed piece of glass and hang it in your window for an equally lovely suncatcher. The blog's creator also added them to her entertainment cabinet. I think that a china hutch would also love a little TLC with pretty glass marbles.

Wherever you decide to apply this craft, have fun and enjoy the color and pizazz this will add to your door, window, cabinets or whatever. Remember, you can never have too much color in your life. While your at it check out M.E. William's post about using these same glass marbles to make some pretty magnets to add even more color to your home.

[via Craftzine]